Gender employment gap in Turkey’s Education Ministry revealed

Rifat Başaran – ANKARA

More than half of the personnel of the Education Ministry are women, but only 5.3 percent of school principals are women, according to a statement by Education Minister Ziya Selçuk.

Selçuk responded to a parliamentary question addressed by Gamze Taşçıer, a main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker from Ankara, about the number of men and women employees of the ministry.

“A total of 548,858 women and 479,027 men are employed at the units of the ministry,” the statement said, meaning that 53 percent of the overall employees are women.

However, only 2,904 of the 54,036 public schools have women principals, Selçuk also said.

Overall, 16 department heads, one general director, two provincial directors of education, 132 district directors of education and 13,291 school vice principals are women, according to the statement.

Turkey has been ranked 130th in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest gender gap index out of 153 countries.